Week 14 Wrap vs Northern Districts and Sydney
1st Grade Round 9: UTS North Sydney vs Northern Districts at North Sydney Oval
UTS North Sydney 9/153 (46 Overs) (J Greenslade 28, M Jenkins 25) def by (DLS) Northern District 1/153 (18.3 Overs)
It was a day to forget for First Grade, going down convincingly to a strong Northern District side.
It’s certainly fair to say the Bears had the worst of the conditions, after losing the toss following an 80-minute delay due to rain, facing a green-top and a wet outfield, both of which improved through the day. We got off to the worst possible start, losing James Rew in the first over to a good low catch in the slips. Brent Atherton played very positively, but followed Rew back to the sheds for 16 in the fifth and the Bears were in trouble at 2/26.
The young pair of Mac Jenkins and Jimmy Greenslade restored some stability either side of a rain delay that reduced the game to 46 overs a side, running well and putting away the bad balls, before Jenkins was trapped lbw for 25 with the score on 56. Tim Reynolds was dismissed shortly afterwards, and debutant Dylan Mares (cap 686) joined Greenslade. The pair of former Mosman Whales added 39, our best partnership of the day, before a mix-up led to Mares being run out for 21. Two more quick wickets followed - Olly Knight was there for a good time rather than a long time (13 off 7), and Greenslade was out the next over for 29.
From dire straits at 7/117, Fletcher May and James Campbell added 24 and meant that the Bears batted out the 46 overs for 9/153.
In reply, the Rangers went all out for a bonus point, and achieved it comfortably. The chief aggressor was former Bear, Scott Rodgie, who made 74, and he was more ably supported at the other end. The only wickets to fall were an lbw to James Campbell (1/40) in the 5th over, which gave us a sliver of hope, and a stumping to James Rew off Sam Alexander (1/15) when only 11 were required to win.
The Bears will be looking to return to the winners’ circle next Saturday when we take on Hawkesbury at Blacktown International Sports Park in the last of the mid-season one-dayers.
2nd Grade Round 9: UTS North Sydney v Northern Districts at Asquith Oval
No play due to rain.
3rd Grade Round 9: UTS North Sydney v Northern Districts at Bon Andrews Oval
UTS North Sydney 7/233 (42 Overs) (J Nevell 72, A Thomas 48*, I Merlehan 25) def (DLS) Northern District 9/239 (47 Overs) (J Graham 3/30, J Thomas 3/35, I Merlehan 2/51)
57mm of rain on Friday made it a damp arrival at Bon Andrews Oval for 3s clash vs local powerhouse Northern Districts.
Noting all the rain, the outfield looked in tip top shape, however there was a large amount of water on the covers which took some time to shift. When the covers eventually pulled back a green dragon appeared. This made the skipper’s decision to bowl first a fait accompli.
NDs played positively (the only way to go on this type of surface) but the Bears were able to make inroads. The 1st fell to Chris Savage before his finger was badly broken / dislocated - leaving 3s without their strike bowler. Jack Thomas (3-35 off 10) and Jacob Graham (3-30 off 10) utilised the conditions perfectly and had NDs floundering at 7-69.
However, the skipper had gambled on running through NDs and had used his main seam options. This meant that the spinners and Aidan Thomas’ seamers would be required to finish the innings. And unfortunately for these bowlers they ran into a wonderful counter attacking partnership from the NDs 8 and 9 who put on 131 for the 8th wicket and changed the game. Ultimately NDs finished 9-239 off there 47 overs, noting 3 overs were lost during the innings for rain. The Bears fielding was sloppy throughout the innings and were regretting some missed opportunities.
The Bears batters were urged to play positively and with their chests out and that’s what they did. The top 4 all got starts but it was John Nevell (72) that broke through to get a score. The Bears were drifting somewhat at 4-105 off 27 overs when the rain hit again, reducing the overs to 44 and the total required to 231.
With the clarity of a mid 7 an over required run rate, the Bears attacked the chase after the break with renewed gusto. Nevell deposited a 6 over point with a cut shot and the running between the wickets picked up. Aidan Thomas (48*) started to find some rhythm to his batting and the Bears were looking dangerous. The Bears lost Nevell after his game changing knock with the score at 147 and Graham at 155 bring Merlehan to the crease. His whirlwind 25 off 11 put the Bears in front and in a position that wouldn’t relinquish.
Still when Merlo departed 38 runs were still required from ~ 6 overs. So the Thomas brothers partnership was especially sweet as they ran hard between the wickets and showed the necessary intent to get the job done. Aidans innings was very pleasing as he was bogged down early, but found a way to release the shackles and win the game for the team!
4th Grade Round 9: UTS North Sydney v Northern Districts at Storey Park
No play due to rain.
5th Grade Round 9: UTS North Sydney v Northern Districts at Tunks International Sports Park
UTS North Sydney 153 (47.3 Overs) (T McKenna 33, E Omar 29) def by Northern District 163 (47.2 Overs) (O Jennings 4/24, T McKenna 3/28, E Omar 2/33)
After a couple of days of heavy rain, which the BOM couldn’t seem to predict with any accuracy, the great man Bernie Vince produced an absolute peach of a wicket for the 5th grade fixture against Northern Districts at Tunks International Sports Park.
Naturally, quite a green surface was presented and as the away captain called incorrectly the home captain hesitated momentarily like a nervous craps darksider tentative to be placing bets against the hot roller. He eeked out the words “we’ll have a bowl” and with that, the rain delayed game was off to a start.
Tom Cole and Eesa Omar bowled tightly for the first 10 and were unfortunate not to both have more than the 1 wicket between them before Travis McKenna made the breakthrough on his cameo return game from Pittsburgh, USA. Travis showed a mixture of class and aggression with his approach and managed to snare 3 NDs wickets.
Shiv Vohra bowled economically and tied their senior batsmen down; however the star of the innings was Olly Jennings, who removed the in form batsman to break their best partnership as well as managing to narrowly miss a hattrick and bowl one of the best deliveries ever witnessed at TISP. With a twist of the wrist the batsmen could only spectate as the ball drifted to a good length outside leg and sharply beelined for the top of his off stump; flooding memories of Warne’s offering to Gatting in the 1993 ashes came rushing in almost as fast as the fielding team to celebrate.
NDs managed to bat their innings and posted a defendable score of 163 which under the conditions was very respectable.
The Bears innings never really got going and some loose shots and good bowling & fielding from NDs put too much pressure on the line-up and they were fortunate to post 153 in reply. Standout performances from Ollie Jennings (22), Jack Mannix (21), Eesa Omar (29) and Travis McKenna (33) kept them in the hunt, however were left too short and lost wickets in clumps or at crucial times in the innings.
5th grade remain at the top of the table however with a tough road to finals it will be interesting to see how this group of doyens rally and learn from this loss.
AW Green Shield Round 3: UTS North Sydney vs Sydney at Tunks International Sports Park
UTS North Sydney 102 (47.1 Overs) (T Hogan 32) def by Sydney 111 (42.1 Overs) (T Hogan 3/19, L Barber 2/20, T Cole 2/23)
The Bears Green Shield team just fell short of Sydney’s modest total of 111 in their Round 3 game at Tunks Park, recording their first loss of the season.
Bears skipper Henry Riseborough won the toss and chose to bowl first, with the plan to frustrate opposition bats as they struggled to reach the boundary on the traditionally slow Tunks outfield. Opening quick Tom Cole took the first two wickets, claiming both openers caught behind, one to Nick Champion in slips, the other to keeper Jack Mannix. Fellow opening bowler Riseborough took the next with an lbw, followed soon after by the first of two for young spinner Lachie Barber, with Mannix taking a lightning fast stumping leaving Sydney at 4-54. Sydney’s next 5 wickets fell for just 45 runs, with Barber claiming his second wicket bowled, Naman Batish snapping in a fast return for a run-out, and gun spinner Tom Hogan taking the next three: the first caught behind for another catch for keeper Mannix, the next bowled, and finally a straightforward – if quick - caught and bowled. The final Sydney wicket fell in the 42nd over to spinner Regan Bridgewater (caught Barber) after the tail wagged for another 22 frustrating runs.
Sydney struck early in the Bears run chase, with a vicious seamer taking out Batish caught behind for a duck. This brought gun No. 3 Tom Hogan to the crease early, with 30 runs added before Nick Champion fell for 13 to another seamer. Hogan held on for 32 before being bowled, with the total at 4/66. A steady stream of Bears bats then came and went, with each partnership adding some hopeful runs before coming unstuck, adding unwelcome evidence of the curse of chasing a low total. Jack Mannix (5), Aston Wijesinghe (9), and youngster Hugh Taylor (5) came and went before Ben Hannah joined Riseborough at the crease at 6/82, and raised hopes with some quick turnover of the strike, including bombing a huge 6. But a freak run-out when a powerful straight drive from Riseborough was just touched by the bowler before hitting the non-striker stumps saw Hannah (11) stranded while backing up. At 7/96, chasing another 16 runs, supporters of both teams had hearts in mouths. But the Bears then lost 2/0, with Riseborough (8) falling to another run-out, then bowler Josh Strefner falling lbw next ball. Tom Cole and Regan Bridgewater managed another 6 runs before another run-out ended the chase an agonising 9 runs short with just under three overs to go.
A difficult lesson for the boys about striving to find a way to reduce dot balls when at the crease, and 2 unforced run-outs showing how pressure can affect judgement.
Tom Hogan now has 10 wickets after 3 rounds, and a startling 189 runs to date in the intense Green Shield season, and spinner Barber has 5 wickets.
Media courtesy of Tony Johnson, Malcolm Trees, Jeff Williamson, Greg Buckley Adam Cavenor and UTS North Sydney members.